1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an organic light emitting diode (OLED) display and, more particularly, to an OLED display having increased mechanical strength by improving the shape or the form of a bezel combined to a panel assembly.
2. Description of the Related Art
The OLED display includes organic light emitting elements including a hole injection electrode, an organic emission layer, and an electron injection electrode. The organic emission layer emits light by energy that is generated when excitons that are generated as electrons and holes are combined in the organic emission layer drop from an excited state to a base state.
Based on such principle, the OLED display has a self-luminous characteristic, and because the OLED display does not need a light source, unlike a liquid crystal display (LCD), it can have a relatively small thickness and weight. In addition, since the OLED display exhibits high-quality characteristics such as low power consumption, high luminance, a high response speed, etc., it is receiving much attention as a next-generation display device.
In general, the OLED display includes a panel assembly on which the organic light emitting elements are formed, a bezel combined on a rear side of the panel assembly, and a printed circuit board (PCB) electrically connected with the panel assembly via a flexible printed circuit board (FPCB). The FPCB bends toward a rear side of the bezel to allow the PCB to be positioned on the rear surface of the bezel.
The panel assembly includes a display area in which the organic light emitting elements are formed, and a pad area where pad electrodes are exposed and the FPCB is fixed. The bezel includes a bottom part on which the panel assembly is mounted, and a side wall formed at edges of the bottom part. In this case, the side wall is formed at edges, excluding an edge portion where the FPCB is folded, of the bottom part.
Unlike the LCD in which the interior of a panel assembly is filled with liquid crystal, the interior of the panel assembly of the OLED display has an empty space, so the OLED device has a low impact-resistance characteristic. In particular, because the side wall of the bezel is omitted at the portion where the FPCB is folded, distortion strength and bending strength of the portion of the bezel corresponding to the pad area are degraded.
Thus, if a user inadvertently drops an electronic device employing the OLED display while in use, a considerable distortion load or a considerable bending load would be instantly applied to the portion of the bezel corresponding to the pad area, thereby deforming the bezel. Then, the distortion load and the bending load would be transferred to the panel assembly, to which the bezel is combined, to damage the panel assembly.
The above information disclosed in this Background section is only for enhancement of understanding of the background of the invention and therefore it may contain information that does not form the prior art that is already known in this country to a person of ordinary skill in the art.